The Edmonton Oilers went on spree of signing AHL level d-men this summer, bringing in Ryan Stanton, Yohann Auvitu and Keegan Lowe, but it may have left them short of NHL quality depth and heavy on AHL veterans. We could see a situation again where top prospects don’t get the ice time, especially on special teams, they need to develop in Bakersfield.

Here is the depth chart as it stands, with the age of the player now and either what level of play he’s capable of playing in the NHL this year or the year when it’s reasonable to project he’s ready to grab an NHL roster spot (most often at the end of the player’s Entry Level Contract given that none of the prospect d-men were first round picks).

My take

At the NHL level, the Oilers will be set on defence by playoff time 2018, but only if Andrej Sekera comes back healthy and no other key d-man gets injured. In other words, they’re not set at all, as injuries are expected. 2

I liked the idea of the Oilers bringing in Cody Franson, who signed a PTO with Chicago. If there’s an injury early on perhaps the Oilers would return to Franson and outbid the Hawks for him. He’d be a decent bet as 5D on the team.

Oscar Klefbom stepped up as the team’s top d-man in the playoffs, with Adan Larsson a solid partner on the top-pair. If Klefbom stays healthy and doesn’t regress, the Oilers will have the best top-pairing on the team since 2005-06, when NHL great Chris Pronger led the Oilers.

On the second pair, Kris Russell proved he was solid last year, but either Matt Benning or Darnell Nurse will have to step up in the short term to partner with him. Both Benning and Nurse are good bets this year to make it as second-pair NHL d-men, based on their play last year, so I’m not worried here, not unless there’s another injury.

If Russell-Benning are the second pair, that leaves Nurse and Eric Gryba on the third-pair, another solid bet. It’s likely the Oilers will go with Yohann Auvitu as the 7D. He gives the team a different look if they want a more offensive line-up and decide to sit Gryba. I’m not as bullish as many on Auvitu’s game, as I see him as a Brad Hunt-like d-man — solid passing, weak defending at NHL level — but perhaps I’m under-estimating his game and he’s ready to take a step up in his second season in North America.

Ethan BearRICHARD LAM Stuart Gradon /
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If Auvitu makes it, and the Oilers only go with seven NHL d-men, that means Bakersfield will have veterans Dillon Simpson, Keegan Lowe, Ben Betker, Mark Fayne, and Ryan Stanton, along with rookies Ziyat Paigin, Ethan Bear, Ryan Mantha and Caleb Jones. That’s nine players for six jobs, with four rookies who have some promise, arguably much more promise than any of the veterans. But will the rookies get a reasonable amount of icetime? Will they play in the Top 4? Will they get power play and penalty kill time? Or will this be like in recent seasons when a veteran like Brad Hunt, with little NHL potential by the end of his Bakersfield days, took power play time away from players like Jordan Oesterle and Joey LaLeggia?

I don’t see the Bakersfield having much use this year for Fayne and Betker, who were third-pairing players last year. That cuts the number to seven. An injury to one d-man or the Oilers going with eight d-men would cut it to six. What would make sense is to go with three of the four rookies in the Bake, perhaps playing Jones with Simpson, Stanton with Paigin and Lowe with Bear, essentially three balanced pairs, with all three of them battling it out for ice-time. Simpson, Paigin and Bear would play the right side, with Bear and Paigin on the power play. Make sense to you?

If Auvitu falls to the AHL, the worst case scenario for development is he eats up all the power play time, with Bear and Paigin getting little. Auvitu is 28. His game is what it is, but Bear and Paigin have room to grow.

Between Bear, Jones, Paigin and Mantha is there a solid third-pairing NHL dman in the group? Is there a Top 4 NHL d-man? The good news is these players have two or three years to develop in the AHL, and will come to the NHL as cheap options on a team that needs cheap options. If I were to bet, I’d say one of those players does one day become an NHL regular, as all four have a lot of promise.

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